Japan's second-largest bank by assets, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, has completed a proof-of-concept using blockchain consortium R3's Marco Polo trade finance platform.
A press release confirmed the PoC completion on Feb. 18.
SMBC, which is the only Japanese bank participating in Marco Polo, said it had partnered with Japanese multinational Mitsui & Co. to enhance efficiency in trade processes.
"SMBC expects to commercialize Marco Polo in the first half of after verification of the PoC.".
Launched in 2017, Marco Polo is a joint venture between R3 and Irish tech firm TradeIX targeting trade finance utility using distributed ledger technology.
Leveraging R3's Corda technology, a total of 15 consortium member banks are currently participating in the Marco Polo consortium, including ING, NatWest and BNP Paribas.
In May last year, Thailand's biggest bank, Bangkok Bank, also joined the initiative with an eye to streamlining trade finance.
R3 is a New York-based group of businesses, banks and other entities founded in 2014 as a distributed technology company.
At its launch in September 2015, it had a total of nine members.
This January, R3 announced the launch of its Corda Network, with the consortium now made up of over 300 members.
Japan's Number Two Bank by Assets Completes R3 Blockchain-Based Trade Finance Trial
Published on Feb 19, 2019
by Cointele | Published on Coinage
Coinage
Recent News
View All
Blockchain Bites: Bitcoin's Run, Uniswap's Hemorrhaging Value, Anchorage's Banking Bid
Bitcoin is nearing all-time highs in price and market cap last set three years ago.
Japan's megabanks to lead experiment with digital yen
We have, in order, Cheese Bank with a $3.3 million theft, Akropolis with its $2 million loss, Value DeFi with a whopping $6 million exploit and finally Origin Protocol's loss of $7 million.
Number of new Bitcoin addresses spikes amid growing FOMO
Japan's three largest banks, as part of a group of 30 private sector actors, are set to collaborate on an experiment with a digital yen.
Not just Wall Street: Quant trader explains why Bitcoin price is going up
Sam Trabucco, a quantitative trader at Alameda Research, believes four general factors are pushing up the price of Bitcoin.